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SCN Working Group on Nutrition, Ethics and Human Rights
held during the ACC/SCN's 29th Session in Berlin, Germany, March 2002
Chair: Urban Jonsson,
Chair, Rapporteurs: Wenche Barth Eide and Uwe Kracht
Development since its 7th meeting in 2001 and preparations for 2003
The Working Group on Nutrition, Ethics and Human Rights (WG-NEHR) did not
meet during the 29th SCN Session, as recommended by the Steering Committee. It
did, however, contribute to this year's Symposium with a presentation on
"The Right to Nutrition in Conflict Situations". This report
summarizes progress with follow-up of last year's and earlier recommendations by
the Group and addresses further steps to be taken in preparation of its 8th
meeting in Channai in India in 2003.
Last year, the WG recommended:
- Intensified work on benchmarks and indicators for monitoring the
realization of the rights to food, health and care to prevent hunger and
promote nutritional well-being;
- The active engagement in the benchmark and indicator work of SCN member
agencies, notably FAO, UNICEF, WHO, WFP, UNDP, UNHCR and the World Bank, as
well as interested bilaterals and NGOs.
- A review of the status of other human rights-related work relevant to
nutrition within the agencies.
Progress with benchmarks and indicators
A draft document on "Monitoring the realization of the rights to
adequate food, health and care for nutritional well-being" had been
developed by a WG-NEHR task force and was presented by the WG Chair to the 28th
session. The document presented a new approach to monitoring, linking rights,
duties and accountability to the analysis of roles of responsible actors and
their capacity to exercise their responsibilities.
As part of the follow-up, the document has been discussed internally in
UNICEF, and was also presented to the UN Development Group's Working Group on
Human Rights Programming at its January 2002 meeting in New York. It will serve
as an input into the development of generic guidelines for human rights based
programming, spearheaded by UNHCHR and UNDP, and WG-NEHR should seize the
opportunity to contribute to this process.
It is now important to have more agencies actively involved in further
developing the new approach. To this effect, the Chair will send out the current
version of the document to concerned agencies for review, amendments and
additional inputs from their specific perspectives. Their reactions and
proposals will be discussed by an enlarged task force composed of members who
prepared the original paper and SCN members participating in the revision of the
document to be circulated by the Chair. The enlarged task force is to meet in
the last quarter of 2002. The approach agreed upon by the task force would then
need to be tested in selected countries, within the framework of UNDAF and its
thematic groups. SCN member agencies would be asked to commit themselves to
participate in this trial process.
General comment no 12 on the right to food: guidelines for national
implementation
A major item on the working group's continuing agenda, resulting from
recommendations made at its sixth meeting in 2000, is the preparation of a
manual on the interpretation and use of General Comment no 12 on the right to
adequate food, issued by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights. This means above all developing guidelines for the national
implementation of this right.
As a preparatory step the Group will have an opportunity to review, at its
8th meeting in 2003, the outcome of six national seminars to be held in the
course of 2002 with support from the International Project on the Right to Food
in Development and the World Alliance for Nutrition and Human Rights . The
principal objective of these seminars is to set into motion a national process
to operationalize General Comment no. 12. Two seminars were already held in
early 2002 in South Africa and Brazil. The others are scheduled to be held in
Mali, Uganda, Nepal and Norway. A synthesis report will be presented to the WG's
8th meeting, on the basis of which the Group would discuss the procedure for
developing guidelines on the implementation of GC 12. This discussion would also
consider how to bring in other relevant General comments from the Committee on
ESCR, notably on the rights to health (no.14), to education (no. 13) and to
housing (no. 4), as well as any general comment that may at that point have come
out from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Status of other human rights-related work relevant to nutrition within the
agencies
While the WG has not undertaken a formal review of human rights-related
activities within the agencies, it must be generally recognized that important
work has been done by many agencies to place their activities into a human
rights perspective. The WG will have an opportunity to review the 'state of the
art' in greater detail at its 8th meeting.
Extending the application of human rights principles to conflict situations
- an initiative to promote the compatibility between human rights law and
humanitarian action
Members of WG-NEHR seized the opportunity of the Symposium on "Nutrition
in the Context of Crisis and Conflict", held at the 29th SCN session in
Berlin, to have a fresh look at the applicability of human rights principles
during civil strife and war. A paper on "The right to nutrition in conflict
situations" presented to the symposium dispelled the misconception that
human rights law is largely non-applicable in conflict situations due to the
possibility of derogation. It concluded that human rights law should be applied,
together with international humanitarian law, during conflict and that duties or
obligations of States Parties should be extended to other duty-bearers at all
levels of society.
In the light of the discussions at the symposium, the paper will be amended
and distributed to SCN member agencies and may also be published in the SCN
News. This will be followed by an inter-sessional meeting of interested Working
Group members to launch a course of action to promote the application of human
rights principles in conflict situations. In response to a recommendation made
at the symposium, the preparations for such a meeting will include a further
assessment of experiences made with humanitarian action. Specifically, it was
recommended at the symposium to consult with the SPHERE Project in the context
of the current field review of experiences with the Project's humanitarian
charter and minimum standards, both of which are based on human rights and
humanitarian law principles. The proposed inter-sessional meeting is tentatively
scheduled for October 2002, with its report to be presented at the Working
Group's 8th meeting in 2003.
Other events in 2002 of interest to the WG
- The Government of Germany, together with the Governments of Italy and
Norway, will host an international workshop on the right to adequate food,
to be held in Berlin 22-23 May 2002. The workshop is to mobilize political
will for the fight against hunger and malnutrition and to consider the
development of a code of conduct on the right to adequate food. Its
recommendations will serve as an input to the World Food Summit: five years
later, to be held in Rome in June. Members of the WG-NEHR have provided
inputs into the preparations of the workshop.
- The June World Food Summit: five years later is an important opportunity
for the international community to advance a human rights approach to food
and nutrition. The Summit's recommendations are expected to impact on the
future work of WG-NEHR.
- In connection with the drafting of the paper on "The right to
nutrition in conflict situations" for the SCN Symposium, a half-day
seminar was organized by the IPRFD entitled: "Is humanitarian action
compatible with human rights principles? Experiences from UNICEF's relief,
reconstruction and development support in the Horn of Africa and the Great
Lakes Region". About thirty-five participants from the Norwegian
government, NGOs and scholars plus the World Food Programme in Rome attended
the seminar.
- Members of WG-NEHR participated in a one-day IFPRI-IPRFD Roundtable on
"What is the relevance of human rights analysis for food policy
analysis? A roundtable for furthering the dialogue", held in Washington
on 15 January 2002. The overall objective was to identify areas where food
policy analysis and human rights analysis can enrich each other's approaches
and improve their effectiveness for practical policies and implementation;
to build a common understanding of the potential 'value-added' in applying a
human rights approach to development; and to improve communication between
the economist and human rights communities, identifying fundamental and/or
apparent differences and ways of overcoming them.
(1) The World Alliance for Nutrition and Human Rights (WANAHR) is a network
of individuals and institutions focusing on advocacy and outreach work in the
promotion of a human rights approach to food and nutrition problems. The
International Project on the Right to Food in Development (IPRFD) is an
undertaking set up to promote research and capacity development in these fields.
The two work closely together and mutually reinforce each others' missions and
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